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Authors & Affiliations
Sahil Threja, Nathan Strogulski, Janeen Laabei, Béré Diallo, Carly Douglas, Kingston Mills, David Loane
Abstract
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is the leading cause of death and disability in young adults. A key factor in the aftermath of TBI is the response to pro-inflammatory cytokines such as interleukin(IL)-1β (IL-1β), tumor necrosis factor (TNF-α), IL-6, IL-17, and interferon-γ (IFNγ). This preclinical study examined key cytokine-producing cells post-TBI in mice.Adult C57BL/6J male mice underwent controlled cortical impact or sham surgery. Mice were euthanized, and brains harvested acutely at 3 hours (h), 6h, 12h, 24h post-injury, or subacutely at 3, 10, and 28 days post-injury (DPI). Mononuclear cells were obtained by percoll density gradient and FACS stained to identify infiltrating immune cells in the brain (Neutrophils, Monocytes, Dendritic cells, T-cell subsets (CD4+, CD8+, TCRγδ+)), as well as levels of intracellular cytokines.Following TBI, neutrophils rapidly infiltrated at 3h post-injury, with monocytes and dendritic cells following at 6h post-injury; all infiltrating innate immune cells produced IL-1β, IL-6, TNF-α. In contrast, T-cell infiltration peaked at 10 DPI and persisted through 28 DPI. Notably, IL-17 production was observed at 3 DPI and peaked at 10 DPI, and was mainly produced by γδ T cells. IFN-γ was produced by CD4+, CD8+ T cells, which peaked at 10 DPI.In summary, this temporal analysis revealed that IL-1β, IL-6, and TNF-α are primarily produced by innate immune cells in the acute phase post-injury, whereas IL-17 was produced by γδ T cells, and IFN-γ by CD4+ and CD8+ T cells at chronic timepoints. This study identifies infiltrating pro-inflammatory cytokine cellular targets for therapeutic intervention post-TBI.